Heather Carpenter, MMNA

Heather found these resources helpful when she was managing the day-to-day operations of her nonprofit. She provides the resources to her students at John F. Kennedy University and some of these resources are California specific.

Forming a Nonprofit Organization: Getting Fiscal Sponsorship

• List of Fiscal Sponsors http://www.capaciteria.org
• Guide to Fiscal Sponsorship http://foundationcenter.org/getstarted/tutorials/fiscal/index.html

Forming a Nonprofit Organization: Apply for 501c3 Status

• How to Form a Nonprofit Corporation Book http://nolo.com
• Sample Business Plans http://www.sba.gov
• Nonprofit Specific Attorneys http://www.attorneyfornonprofits.com http://www.silklaw.com/
• Sample Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation http://www.nedlc.org/Publications/publications_legal.htm
• Sample Conflict of Interest Policy http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1023/ar03.html
• See if other nonprofits have the same name through Guidestar http://www.guidestar.org
• Business Name Instructions and Filings for California
• http://www.sos.ca.gov/business/corp/corp_naav.htm
• EIN Application http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=102767,00.html
• California Nonprofit Exemption Application http://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/07_forms/07_3500.pdf
• Federal Tax Exemption Application Form 1023 http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1023.pdf
• Form 1023 Help http://www.form1023help.com/
• Information about registering through the Attorney General's Registry of Charitable Trusts in California http://ag.ca.gov/charities/content/reg_req.php
• Advanced Ruling Period Information http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=123155,00.html

Managing Your Board of Directors

• Board Matching Service http://www.boardnetusa.org
• Board source provides affordable how-to guides for board members and many board governance resources http://www.boardsource.org.
• The council on Quality and Leadership provides a free guide to Developing and Supporting a Board of Directors. http://thecouncil.dreamhost.com/pdfs/board-directors.pdf

Organizational Structure

• How to Build an Organizational Chart http://management.about.com/cs/peoplemanagement/ht/BuildOrgChart.htm

Hiring and Managing Staff and Volunteers

• Resources for Human Resource Management http://www.shrm.org/
• Nonprofit Human Resource Management Center http://www.idealist.org/hrp/index.html
• Daring to Lead Research Report by CompassPoint http://www.compasspoint.org/assets/5_daring.pdf
• Volunteer Center of East Bay http://www.helpnow.org/
• Idealist.org Nonprofit Volunteer and Job Listing Site http://www.idealist.org
• Opportunity Knocks Nonprofit Job Listing Site http://www.opportunitynocs.org/
• Young Nonprofit Professionals Network http://www.ynpn.org/CareerCenter/search.asp
• Hands On Network Bay Area Volunteer Listing Site http://www.handsonbayarea.org/HomePage/index.php/home.html
• Sample Nonprofit HR Policies http://www.ncna.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=465#handbook

Fundraising and Development

• The Foundation Center in San Francisco provides fundraising resources, lists of foundations, grant writing workshops and more http://www.foundationcenter.org
• Sample Grant Proposal Template www.nng.org/assets/Common_Grant_Application.doc
• Top Corporate Philanthropists http://www.nonprofitlawblog.com/home/2006/07/san_francisco_b.html
• Corporate Philanthropy Issue San Francisco Business Times (July Each Year) http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/
• Find local businesses through http://smartpages.com
• Government Funding http://www.grants.gov and http://www.getgrants.ca.gov
• The Grassroots Fundraising Journal provides information about raising money through individual donors. http://www.grassrootsfundraising.org
• Software Reviews Nonprofit Databases http://www.idealware.org/articles/constituent_databases.php
• A great online fundraising resource is Groundspring.org’s on-line Fundraising Handbook. https://www.groundspring.org/learningcenter/groundspring-handbook.pdf

Ethics/Accountability/Risk Management

• Independent Sector Panel on the Nonprofit Sector http://www.nonprofitpanel.org/report/final/
• Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice http://www.nonprofitpanel.org/report/principles/Principles_Guide.pdf
• SF Bar Association Volunteer Legal Services Program http://www.sfbar.org/volunteer/index.aspx
• Independent Sector Checklist for Accountability http://www.independentsector.org/issues/accountability/Checklist/index.html
• Nonprofit Risk Management Center: http://www.nonprofitrisk.org Also provides resources for Risk Planning. http://www.myriskmanagementplan.org
• Legal Issues for Small Businesses and Nonprofit Agencies booklet http://www.sce.com/NR/rdonlyres/36254861-99E8-4F2F-8756-6B51AD058078/0/BusLegalIssuesSmallBusinessesandNonProfit2002.pdf
• Computer Assisted Risk Evaluation Center http://www.nonprofitcares.org
• Insurance: Nonprofit Insurance Alliance of California http://www.niac.org
• What Basic Insurance Should a Nonprofit Consider? http://www.nonprofitrisk.org/enews/enews060607.htm
• Lobbying Information for Nonprofits Alliance for Justice http://www.afj.org/
• Find your elected officials http://www.usa.gov

Financial Management

• Nonprofit Unified Chart of Accounts http://nccs.urban.org/projects/ucoa.cfm
• Financial Leadership for Nonprofit Executives http://www.fieldstonealliance.org/productdetails.cfm?SKU=06944X
• Annual Planning for Your Nonprofit Annual Planning Tips for your Nonprofit: http://hildygottlieb.com/category/nonprofit-planning/

Marketing/Public Relations/Communications

• World Hunger Year has produced a free media guide for nonprofits that you can download and request on their website. http://www.worldhungeryear.org/forms/frm_media_guide.asp.
• Marketing Communications consulting firm for nonprofit organizations. http://www.mission-minded.com
• The SPIN Project teaches you how to pitch to the media, and provides strategy and support throughout the pitching process. A great resource for creating a communications plan. http://www.spinproject.org
• Cause Communications has a free Nonprofit Communications tool kit you can order through their website. http://www.causecommunications.org.

Setting up a Nonprofit Office

• Northern California Community Loan Fund’s (NCCLF) Space Matching service www.ncclf.org
• Nonprofit Centers, Multi-tenant Nonprofit Office Space http://www.nonprofitcenters.org/
• Free Furniture www.Ireuse.com, http://www.FreeCycle.org
• A great technology resource center. http://www.accidentaltechies.org
• Very, Very low cost software for nonprofit organization, as well as answers to many technology questions. http://www.techsoup.org
• Tech Soup Healthy and Secure Computing, handouts and technology planning templates http://www.techsoup.org/hsc
• A free guide to Application Service Provider’s, Internet Services, and online software (including donation software) http://www.compasspoint.org/enonprofit
• Great free expert advice for purchasing any technology product. http://www.pcmagazine.com
• Free Software! http://www.downloads.com
• Lists of Nonprofit Software http://www.socialsourcecommons.org
• Nonprofit software reviews http://www.idealware.org
• Website design companies Radical Designs http://www.radicaldesigns.org and Float Left http://www.floatleft.org
• Nonprofits technology listservs nten-discuss@groups.nten.org or npo-techies@lists.compasspoint.org
• Aspiration http://www.aspirationtech.org

Planning

• Sample business plans are available at: http://www.bplans.com/samples/sba.cfm
• Tech Soup provides technology planning resources. http://www.techsoup.org

General Resources

• Bookmarks on Del.icio.us http://del.icio.us/heathercarpenter
• General Nonprofit Resources on the web http://www.managementhelp.org, http://www.nonprofits.org and http://www.capaciteria.org
• A List of Nonprofit Related Blogs http://philanthropy.com/giveandtake/

• Starting a Nonprofit Toolkit: Are you are really passionate about an issue and thinking about starting your own nonprofit--but don’t know where to begin? This toolkit provides a simple overview as well as practical resources for starting your own nonprofit organization.
  
  
• Setting up a Nonprofit Office Toolkit: Are your ready to move away from your cramped space or your founder’s dining room and find a new office for your nonprofit? This toolkit provides resources and steps to guide you during your nonprofit’s office move.
  
  
• Nonprofit Operations Toolkit: This toolkit provides practical steps and resources for established nonprofit organizations to run more effectively. The toolkit is broken into eight key operational areas which are critical to running the day-to-day operations of any nonprofit organization.